Libraries and Library Resources

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world. Its mission is to promote the highest quality library and information services and public access to information.

Awesome Library organizes the Web and provides resources, carefully reviewed for usefulness and appropriateness. In order to be included in the Awesome Library, resources need to meet all of the standards: only child-safe links; useful for teachers, students ("kids" or "teens"), parents, or librarians; "real stuff" (actual documents, projects, pictures, and discussion groups); current; load quickly; small percentage of "dead" links; and best version available.

Federal publications and other information products are made available for free public use in Federal depository libraries throughout the United States. In addition to the publications, trained librarians are available to assist in their use

Provides resources, services, and networking opportunities for Friends, Trustees, and Foundations across the country to increase and enhance their efforts on behalf of public, academic, and school libraries.

Promotes the development of the libraries that all Iowans depend on for information and lifelong learning. The Association provides leadership, education and support to enable its members to meet the challenges of providing quality library service to all Iowans.

A virtual library resource center for educators and students, librarians and their patrons, families, and businesses exploring the Web for valuable research information. The site’s stated purpose is to break through the information overload of the Web and bring the best library and reference sites together with insightful editorial in one user-friendly spot. Sites featured are hand-selected and reviewed by an editorial team for their exceptional quality, content and utility.

The mission of this site is to serve people with an easy access to the use of public libraries and promote reading. This goal is made possible through participation of local libraries. It is meant to be a very resourceful site for individuals, families, schools and organizations.

The State Library of Iowa actively champions libraries. Its two roles are improving library services in Iowa and delivering specialized information services to state government and to Iowans. Its mission is to advocate for Iowa libraries and to promote excellence and innovation in library services, in order to provide statewide access to information for all Iowans.

Site is arranged by specialized areas. Unlike commercial catalogues, it is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert; even though it isn't the biggest index of the Web, the VL pages are widely recognized as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the Web.